Trumpet
‘Doc’ (Dan) Odegaard
Band Leader, Trumpet
Dan “Doc” Odegaard is a trumpet player and the leader of the Classic Big Band. Although he spent his career in dentistry both as a private practitioner and part time clinical professor, he began playing trumpet professionally at age 17. He studied trumpet with Jack Coan and Daniel Tetzlaff. After a 10 year break while raising a young family, he started playing trumpet again in the 90s concentrating on big band music. In 1998, the Classic Big Band was formed focusing on the original arrangements of the big band era, particularly those featuring group vocals.
Cindy Stille
Trumpet
Cindy Stille plays trumpet with the band. After touring Europe with the National Collegiate Wind Band in high school, she auditioned for, and was accepted into the Army USAREUR band, and spent 4 years touring Europe. After graduating from the business school of Ramapo College of New Jersey, Cindy returned to Minnesota and enjoys playing with various groups in the Twin Cities area.
Paul Odegaard
Trumpet
Paul Odegaard plays trumpet in the band. He studied with Dan Tetzlaff (Minneapolis Symphony, legendary educator), Larry Foyen (Maynard Ferguson, Ray Charles), and Lynn Erickson (St. Paul Chamber Orchestra). A graduate of Macalester College, Paul is an in-demand performer and studio musician in the Twin Cities. Along with the Classic Big Band, he regularly appears in a variety of settings and genres, including The Execs Big Band, and with songwriters like Katy Vernon, John Swardson and Bad Blood, and Dan Israel.
Bob Hallquist
Trumpet
Bob Hallquist - trumpet - earned a Bachelor of Arts Degree from Hamline University and Master of Arts and PhD from the University of Minnesota. He taught music in Roseville Schools for over 30 years and was named Jazz Educator of the Year in 1988 and Band Music Educator of the Year in 1990. Bob has extensive playing experience in both classical and jazz groups. After retirement he directed the Bend in the River Big Band for 20 years.
Saxophone & Clarinet
Connor Carroll
Saxophone
Connor Carroll plays tenor saxophone in the band. After studying with Joan Hutton in high school, he attended Indiana University's Jacobs School of Music (class of '13) where he studied under Tom Walsh and David Baker. Since 2013 Connor has been an active performer in the Twin Cities music scene, playing in a variety of settings such as jazz, funk, rock, soul, and Irish traditional music. Connor's other regular groups include Viva Knievel (rock/funk covers), Legacy (traditional Celtic music), and the McNasty Brass Band.
Dave Wright
Saxophone, Clarinet, Flute
David Wright plays saxes, clarinet, bass clarinet, and flute in the band. He’s earned 3 Grammy Awards and 2 gold albums as a member of the Sounds of Blackness. He’s performed with the Temptations, Aretha Franklin, The Four Tops, Ray Charles, Doc Severinsen, The New Standards, and other major artists. He’s performed with the Minnesota Orchestra, the Wayzata and Metropolitan Symphony Orchestras. In 2006 he performed on stage as a Jazz Saxophonist actor in the New Guthrie’s Inaugural season of “The Great Gatsby. David graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater, with a B.M.E and an M.S.T. in Music Education.
Dana Mathewson
Saxophone, Clarinet
Dana Mathewson plays lead alto sax and lead clarinet with the band. He has played as a free-lance musician in Buffalo, New York and played the lead reed book with the Ice Capades, traveling Broadway shows such as "42nd Street," "Stop The World, I Want To Get Off" (with Anthony Newley), the first-ever tour of "Singing In the Rain," and with Mel Tormé, Joan Rivers, Johnny Mathis (with music director Henry Mancini), Frankie Avalon, Bobby Rydell, The Four Tops and the Temptations, Lou Rawls and Nancy Wilson, and The Lettermen, to name a few.
Alan Kolderie
Clarinet, Saxophone
Alan Kolderie considers himself a clarinetist and recorder player who also plays saxophone, but both he and his 1939-vintage tenor sax are in their element playing swing era big band music. He's been active in the Twin Cities music community since the mid-1990s, and playing with The Classic Big Band since 2014. Alan's other regular groups are the Encore Wind Ensemble and Wayzata Symphony Orchestra for clarinet & bass clarinet, and the Eglantine Consort for recorder. He also works part-time as a Schubert Club Music Museum guide in St. Paul.
Bill Burton
Saxophone
Bill Burton, baritone and alto saxophone, has performed in many big bands, pit orchestras and back-up orchestras in the Twin Cities for over forty years. He is also the retired long-time owner of Southdale Instrument Repair, a band instrument repair shop which was located in the former Schmitt Music Edina.
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Trombone
John Olson
Trombone
John Olson received his BS and MA degrees from the University of Minnesota. He taught instrumental music in the Osseo, MN public school system for 36 years. Besides playing in the Classic Big Band, John is a trombonist with the Twin Cities Latin Jazz Orchestra, Cedar Avenue Big Band, Century Jazz Ensemble, Jerry O'Hagan Orchestra, and the Lake Wobegon Brass Band.
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Ralph Brindle
Trombone
Ralph Brindle has been in the trombone section of the band since the early 2000s. He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a master’s degree in Electrical Engineering. Now retired after a career as a real-time embedded software developer, he plays trombone, baritone, and tuba in the Execs Big Band, the Twin Cities Brass Band, the First John Philip Sousa Memorial Band, the Ascot Brass (quintet). Recently retired from the Century Jazz Ensemble, he still plays in the smaller offshoot of that organization, the CCSeptet. He can be heard on pleasant evenings at Centennial Lakes Park in Edina playing alphorn duets with his wife Mary.
Michael Burton
Trombone
Michael Burton (trombone) holds a bachelors degree in both Trombone and Vocal Performance from Lawrence University. He has performed with Minnesota Opera, Gilbert & Sullivan Very Light Opera, and in various big bands and musical theatre productions in the Twin City area.
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Jeff Macomber
Trombone
Bass trombonist, Jeff Macomber, is a music and music education graduate of Bowling Green State University and The University of Iowa. He retired as Professor of Music from Missouri Southern State University in 2018 and now lives in Roseville. He is also a member of the Kenwood Symphony Orchestra and plays euphonium in the Star of the North and the Shoreview Northern Lights Variety bands.
Rhythm
Scott Simpson
Drums
Drummer Scott Simpson had wonderful band directors and teachers starting in 5th grade with Robert Ellege, Gene Trowbridge, and Ed Melichar in Edina Schools followed by Elliott Fine who taught him all the basic rhythms and styles for set drumming. At the U of M, Dr. Frank Bencriscutto gave him the experience of touring Russia in 1969 followed by a chance to play with Clark Terry. Scott worked with Dick Whitbeck for 7 years at the Guthrie Theater, backed Gladys Knight and the Pips at the Carlton, and is indebted to Jack Gillespie (who provided many years of working with show groups, club bands, big bands, and small groups – Jimmy Martin among them). His parents made this all possible by paying for his drum lessons and coming to his school concerts.
Dean Kleven
Piano
Dean Kleven studied classical piano from 2nd - 12th grade. He majored in classical guitar performance at Augsburg College. Dean traveled across the country with various horn bands, and played with Christian groups and worship teams for about 40 years. Dean played guitar or keyboard with 4 big bands within that same time. He also plays in a duo at various venues with his wife and vocalist, Debbie Bigelow.
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Greg Stinson
Bass
Greg Stinson is the bass player with the Classic Big Band. In addition, he plays in several groups around town, including the Century Jazz Ensemble, the St. Croix Jazz Orchestra, the Larry McDonough Quartet, the Tuscany Trio, and the CC Septet.
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Sam Bergstrom
Guitar
Sam Bergstrom, a guitarist specializing in classical and jazz styles, earned his bachelor degree from Augsburg University and his masters from the University of St. Thomas in music education. He has been a faculty member at Anoka-Ramsey Community College since 2007 where he teaches in the music department. Bergstrom currently plays in the Classic Big Band, the Cedar Ave Big Band, and his own groups, Cantina Jazz Quartet, and Trio Sem Nome, which specializes in Brazilian jazz.
Vocals
Reeves Cary
Tenor
Reeves Cary sings tenor in the Nostalgics Vocal Quartet, a group he co-founded in 1995. A theater graduate of Concordia College (Moorhead, MN) where he first studied voice, Reeves continued his vocal training at McPhail School of Music. In the ‘70s and 80s, he sang in Twin Cities nightclubs with such groups as the Ron Lee Express, Crosswind and Cloudburst and in cabaret performances. Along with singing with a men’s gospel chorus, “The Little Dickens Victorian Carolers,” a duo called “Lammers and Cary,” and on the Minnesota Zephyr, Reeves has also been a guest soloist with the Glenn Miller Birthplace Society Band, performing at the International Glenn Miller Festival. In addition to performing with The Classic Big Band, Reeves is a vocalist with The Minnesota Jazz Orchestra and the Ron Chamberlain Big Band.
Pam Parker
Lead
Pam Parker sings lead with the Nostalgics Vocal Quartet. Pam grew up listening to her mother’s own 1940s style vocals captured on 78 record demos, surrounded by 1940s era sheet music, which she insisted on playing instead of what her piano teacher gave her. Her first public performances were duets with her mother at age 5. A music minor, Pam studied the lyric soprano opera repertoire and appeared in productions of the Anoka Opera, Lyric Arts, St. Croix Festival Theatre, and the North Star Opera while also performing all over the metro with her swing combo, Star Dust, specializing in WWII standards and as a vocalist with the Anoka based Big Stoop Orchestra. An original member of the Nostalgics along with Reeves Cary, Pam is grateful to be able to fulfill her childhood dream as a big band singer!
Jody McCormick
Alto
Jody McCormick sings alto with the Nostalgics. She grew up in Storm Lake, Iowa, received her Masters Degree in Music Education with a piano emphasis at the University of Minnesota and a counseling certification from the University of Wisconsin. She taught music in the public school system for 37 years. Jody sang and played alto sax, clarinet and flute with the Gene White Band, was a vocalist with USO shows, directed and performed with the show group A Touch of Class, sang on the Minnesota Zephyr train and was the alto with the Phil Mattson Singers. Along with the Nostalgics, she currently sings with Snap Crackle Pop! and The Little Dickens Victorian Carolers and plays piano for a variety of events.
Tom Witry
Baritone
Tom Witry is in his 15th year as the baritone in the Nostalgics Quartet. He has entertained audiences in over 70 professional musical productions, most notably at The Guthrie Theatre, The Ordway Music Theatre, The MUNY of St. Louis, Sacramento Music Circus, Chanhassen Dinner Theatre, and The Fox Theatre of Atlanta. He has had the great privilege of performing alongside Joel Grey, Gordon MacRae, Phyllis Diller, Rue McClanahan, and understudied John Schneider in the role of Curly, for The Ordway’s production of "OKLAHOMA!" Tom also sings with the vocal quartet, Jerry Rubino Plus, performing at Orchestra Hall, as educational outreach, in local clubs, for private events, and served as a studio-recording group for MPR. Outside of his “spare” time, Tom is a freelance commercial talent and part time accountant.